I’m Spending a Lot of Money on This: Getting and Measuring Bang for Your Buck Through Leadership Coaching

We’ve spent the last few months here at The Point blog talking about Leadership Coaching. Posts have included a run down on what to look for in a coach, should you hire a coach, our coaching process, how to seek feedback, how to practice feedforward and how to address the most common coaching issues. Does coaching work?  According to scholarly research in an examination of coaching effectiveness on 370 coaching participants, coaching produced results equivalent from moving someone from the 50th  percentile to the 93rd percentile and which equates to being at least three times more effective than leadership training

4 Steps for Handling and Diffusing Conflict

Last week, I had to share some information with someone that was unpleasant. I was nervous about how to deliver the message, but I went back to the steps I recommend to leadership coaching clients when they have to deliver and discuss issues that involve conflict. This is a very common issue that leaders have to navigate, and the best method to handle or diffuse conflict is to address it. The worst thing that can be done is to ignore. If you’re struggling with how to handle a situation head on, use these steps to make it easier: 1.  Get

Drop Lots of FYIs to Communicate Effectively

I was mad. Really mad. I had an appointment with a client. He asked to reschedule because he said he would be out of the office all day the day we had scheduled to meet. I showed up at the company the day we were scheduled to meet in order to meet with one of his colleagues and out he walks. He’s there. I felt lied to and intentionally blown off. He said nothing. I said nothing. I expected an apology or at least an explanation e-mail or phone call to come from him. I got nothing. In inquiring about

The Key to Motivating Others: Make Them Want to be Better by Buying them Bloomers

I ran into a professional contact at a local conference last month. She’s an attorney with experience in HR and has provided me with some legal advice related to a consulting project I had last year. I hadn’t seen her in about six months and we have probably interacted two or three times over the last couple of years. We caught up, talking about family and work. Being 38 weeks pregnant at the time, she asked about our growing family. It is always a pleasure talking to her, and I left our conversation being thankful that there are professionals like

5 Steps for Managing Upward

In my first “real” job out of college, I had no idea what managing upward was and had no idea how to do it. More importantly, I didn’t know why it was necessary. In hindsight, I got passed over for a job opening in the department that I wanted because I didn’t manage upward, I got more work than any other person in the department thrown on me because I didn’t manage upward, and I ended up being pretty miserable because I didn’t manage upward. In my personal experiences and in coaching middle managers, I’ve learned that the topic of